Back GRECO: 25 years helping states to combat corruption

GRECO: 25 years helping states to combat corruption

The Council of Europe´s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024. Since 1999, when it was established, GRECO has been a driving force in countering corruption in its member states, which today include the 46 Council of Europe member states, the United States of America and Kazakhstan.

Over the years, GRECO has improved the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with anti-corruption standards and helping them identify and correct deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies. It has prompted legislative, institutional and practical reforms in areas such as the criminalisation of corruption offences, transparency of political funding, and the prevention of corruption among parliamentarians, judges, prosecutors, top executive functions of central governments and the police, among other topics.

To mark its 25th anniversary, on 20 June, GRECO organised a special session during its plenary meeting in Strasbourg, aiming to take stock of its achievements and to examine the challenges ahead in preventing and combatting corruption. Addressing the GRECO plenary, Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge said: “For a quarter of a century now, GRECO’s monitoring reports have gone to the very heart of the way in which the state functions. And their follow-up has been defined by a steady persistence in reminding members of their obligations. Moving forward, what remains important is that GRECO continues to ensure its high level of scrutiny and expectations of its members.”

Síofra O’Leary, president of the European Court of Human Rights, highlighted that the standards that GRECO has developed and its findings in country evaluations are reflected in many rulings of the Court. “This demonstrates a constructive and complementary interaction between the work of your body and the autonomous judicial branch of the Council of Europe”, she said.

GRECO President Marin Mrčela said: “We have the means to ensure that corruption is not an accepted practice of the functioning of the institutions in our democratic states. In 25 years, GRECO has proved to be one of the most efficient means which contribute to the achievement of this objective.” “Our strength and credibility lie also in the fact that we do not give up when our recommendations are not implemented. We are proud of our compliance procedure as it led to concrete results” but GRECO, he underlined, “should reflect on how to best address situations of continued lack of compliance and support its members to achieve the expected results.”

Claire Bazy Malaurie, President of the Venice Commission; PACE member Sunna Aevarsdottir, representing the Parliamentary Assembly; Danela Arsovska, Mayor of Skopje and Spokesperson on Ethics and Prevention of Corruption of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities; and Leonie Reynolds, President of the Consultative Council of European Judges, also spoke at the session.

 Speech by Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General

STRASBOURG 20/06/2024
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Ever since antiquity, corruption has been one of the most widespread and insidious of social evils. When it involves public officials and elected representatives, it is inimical to the administration of public affairs. Since the end of the 19th century, it has also been seen as a major threat in the private sphere, undermining the trust and confidence which are necessary for the maintenance and development of sustainable economic and social relations. It is estimated that hundreds of billions of Euros are paid in bribes every year. (more)

A word from the President of GRECO

Welcome to this window on GRECO’s world!
I invite you to use it to look into the work we do with our 48 member States. We use the dynamics of collective expertise and peer pressure to accomplish action by individual governments that will build durable barriers against corruption and bring to justice those who misuse their position for personal gain to the detriment of society as a whole.

Whether inspired by GRECO’s work, that of others with an anti-corruption agenda or our own experiences and principles, each one of us has a role to play in changing the mind-set to zero tolerance of corruption.

Members of GRECO Bureau

The composition of GRECO's Bureau is the following: António DELICADO (Portugal), Vita HABJAN BARBORIČ (Slovenia), David MEYER (United Kingdom), President Marin MRČELA (Croatia), Vice-President Monika OLSSON (Sweden), Olivier GONIN (Switzerland) and Panagiota VATIKALOU (Greece).

 BEWARE OF SCAMS

It has been brought to our attention that the name of GRECO is being used for fraudulent purposes. These scams may appear to use letterhead with the GRECO logo, or contain the signatures of actual or fictitious senior GRECO officials, aiming to give the appearance of a legitimate GRECO correspondence.  Sometimes they may include legitimate website addresses to give a veneer of credibility to the scam.

Typically, the solicitations asked potential victims to provide personal information such as signatures or bank account information, and to pay certain advance fees, often described as "processing fees." In return, the potential victim was promised sums of money that the person soliciting the "fees" had no intention of paying. In some cases, those seeking the funds used the names of actual GRECO staff members to sign the letters in order to bolster their credibility.

GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption body, monitors the way in which its member countries implement the Council of Europe conventions and other instruments at national level. GRECO does not contact members of the public directly by email, telephone, Whatsapp or any other means about specific financial transactions or personal information.

We caution the public to be very wary of these and other similar solicitations that falsely claim to be affiliated with the GRECO. If you have received such a communication, we advise you to immediately terminate that contact.  If you have already paid them money, please contact your local law enforcement without delay.